Romney camp may cringe over Etch A Sketch remark but it leaves toymaker smiling

This image is one of a number of illustrations popping up across the Internet today in the wake of a gaffe by an adviser to Mitt Romney who likened the GOP frontrunner's campaign strategy to an Etch A Sketch, which opened the door for rivals to repeat often-cited criticisms that Romney has flopped positions on important issues. (Illustration by DonkeyHotey via Flickr)

Mitt Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom started it. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and the Democratic National Committee all seized upon it. But the folks smiling broadest over a Romney campaign gaffe Wednesday are the folks who make Etch A Sketch.

Early Wednesday on CNN, Fehrnstrom was asked whether he was
concerned that the candidate might be forced by Republican opponents to
take extreme positions during the primary that could alienate moderates
in a race against President Barack Obama. In his response, Fehrnstrom likened his own candidate's strategy to the draw-shake-erase toy. "I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again."

Those remarks left Romney wide open to a fresh barrage from his GOP rivals and Democratic National Committee on oft-repeated claims that Romney has a history of wafting positions.

Today, in addition to the predictable images appearing on the Internet, so too are reports of a surge in business for Ohio Art Co., the maker of the beloved "magic" drawing pad that has sold 150 million units since 1960.

The Bryan, Ohio-based company surged in trading, thanks to the brouhaha in what the San Francisco Chronicle and Bloomberg said was its biggest intraday rise since at least 1980.

The Los Angeles Times described the scene as Ohio Art executives were holed up in a meeting room when emails, cellphones, text messages and landlines "all began beeping and ringing and shaking and bleating the news -- that Etch-A-Sketch was the news."

"They were bombarded. It just went haywire. In a good way," spokeswoman Nicole Gresh told The Times. "They were just in shock."

Sales figures from the last 24 hours were not immediately available, Gresh said.